The Eureka Carnegie Free Library is significant for its role as the city's public library, built by one of California's earliest Carnegie Library grants.

The elegant Classical Revival structure, which was designed by local architects Knowles Evans
and B. C. Tarver, is a handsome and rare example of its type of architecture in Eureka and the surrounding area. It is significant for the excellence
of its construction, and in the use of finely detailed redwood panelling native to this area in the interior.

Adapted from the NRHP Nomination submitted in 1986.

When we photographed the Carnegie Free Library building in 2007, it housed the Morris Graves Museum of Art.